When my time as an APIENC Summer Organizer came to a close, I brought ink to skin, tattooing a representation of my transformation this summer. Now, on my right arm is an abstract person whose head is exploding, three bold eyes flying in different directions. If I could encapsulate this summer with APIENC in a
I sat in a Zoom room with 30 other people—most, I didn’t know, and all, I had never actually met in-person. It was our first weekend of LEX—APIENC’s API Queer Justice Leadership Exchange—and I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement. Just over a year ago, I first joined APIENC. At the time, the COVID-19
JUL 2021 | JEFF RAMOS Jeff (they/he) joined APIENC in 2019 and is a member of the Trans Justice committee, where he is working on launching the peer counseling pilot. Jeff, who identifies as a Filipino American, demi/pansexual, genderqueer and nonbinary person, attended their first APIENC event back in October of 2019, the Fall Potluck.
My name is Leo Shanti Hegde, I use he and they pronouns, and I am excited to share that I’m APIENC’s newest community organizer! I’m a second-generation Indian American who grew up in Edison, New Jersey. I attended college on the ancestral lands of the Cherokee and Shawnee people in Nashville, Tennessee, and since 2019
Dear APIENC community, This year, our community has faced crisis after crisis. We’ve been targeted by white supremacist attacks, denied access to gender-affirming healthcare, isolated through the COVID-19 pandemic and so much more. So many trans and queer APIs have been made to feel helpless. While many of us may be feeling low on charge,
“What would you do in a world where compassion, hope, or liberation doesn’t exist?How would you teach someone about it?” This prompt was etched into my memories from a creative writing opportunity in 2018. Looking back, I would have explained the work and community of APIENC. From the past six years of being in the
MAY 2021 | DOROTHY TANG Dorothy Tang (they/them) joined APIENC last year and is on the Dragon Fruit Podcast production and dissemination teams and is a member of the Trans Justice Committee. Dorothy, who identifies as 2nd generation Teochew/Chinese-Vietnamese and non-binary, first found APIENC last summer when they were seeking out a community of other
